Democracy And Nation Building

Rajiv Gandhi : "We have cherished our democracy. Democracy is our strength. We have no illusions that all problems have been resolved. But the democratic way of nation building requires patience, perseverance and a spirit of conciliation. We proclaim the unity of India. It is a fact of transcending significance. But is it not also a fact that most of us, in our daily lives, do not think of ourselves as Indians? We see ourselves as Hindus, Muslims or Christians, or Malyalees, Maharashtrians, Bengalis. Worse, we think of ourselves as Brahmins, Thakurs, Jats, Yadavas and so on and so forth. And we shed blood to uphold our narrow and selfish denominations. We are imprisoned by the narrow, domestic walls of religion, language, caste, and region, blocking out the clear view of a resurgent nation. Political parties, state governments and social organisations promote policies, programmes and ideologies which divide brother from brother and sister from sister. Bonds of fraternity and solidarity yield to the onslaughts of meanness of mind and spirit. Is this the India for which Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi sacrificed their lives?

We need to change the scenario of rural areas and for that we need to change the lives of farmers, workers. This is the only way out. We need to take the farmers closer to the use of technology, give them advanced equipments, give them newer variety of seeds and teach them new irrigational methods. On the other side we will also make sure that they get the right price of their production. This way we are trying to help out the farmers.

Bringing the 73rd Constitutional amendment, he also brought the idea of 'a government of the people, by the people, for the people' into a real shape.

(Strongly advocating Panchayati Raj)...After the country got Independent, the constitution promised the resolution of empowering the third strata of society. First and second is functional from Delhi or functional in capital cities which is decently empowered after several elections. These can not be moved now. But because the third strata is still weak, the weakness passes on to the first and second strata too. People at the top strata become paper lions. This way a complete hollow set up is built and that is what we need to rectify. ....We need to ensure that newest of technology is utilized and used at the rural level. We need to befriend science and technology to jump to higher notches. Distance between concept and implementation needs to be bridged."

RAHUL GANDHI : "I have been saying for sometime now that this country started of as one country and every body in this country was poor. Sixty years of work and today we have developed two Indias. One India is the India of opportunity and second India is lacking that opportunity. You can say one India is rich, one India is poor. You can say one India has infrastructure, roads, connectivity and other India does not. You can say one India lives in the cities, the other India doesn't. None of these definitions captures precisely the fact that there are two India. But every one among us knows that there are two Indias. Ensure that it is an India of opportunities for all. Our view is that you need both these Indias to eventually create that One India. The idea is that you take the India with opportunities, you grow that India and you take some of the benefits and you put them into the villages and you engage and involve that India into this first one. That is our view. Out view is that both these Indias have to be merged and that is the idea of Aam Admi.".

For centuries saints and sages have urged the people to eliminate graft and corruption from private as well as public life; there have been countless sermons against this deep-rooted menace that has eaten into the vitals of society.

Earth, fire, water and air are the four classical elements and the building blocks of the entire Universe. Our world is a fascinating and dynamic place, and one which is very much alive, offering limitless potential to humanity for millennia to come, provided that we learn to use it wisely.

With so many scams raising its venomous head, it has only left us with the fact that the Indian politicians have become frenzy for power. The decisive mandate that reflects the will of the country has been reduced to a joke with every winning representative aligning them to the path of merry making.